


Crash!

by CrypticCravings (Sekaiinokoi)



Series: Adrinette Month 2017 [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, Adrien is precious., Adrinette Month, Chat Noir!Marinette, F/M, Kwami Swap, Ladybug!Adrien, Marinette is clumsy as heck, Miraculous switched, Plagg is a king, Tikki tries to comfort, Weird miraculous abilities, kwami swap au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 17:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9559508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sekaiinokoi/pseuds/CrypticCravings
Summary: Marinette is clumsy. Anyone who meets her knows that within a few minutes. But one day, her clumsiness gets both her and Adrien into a sticky situation.After her unfortunate tumble, both Ladybug and Cat Noir must deal with the mistake and an accidental reveal. They cope with how to move forward.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Day 3 of Adrinette Month! Today’s theme is Miraculous Switched, so I’m taking this as an opportunity to do a kwami swap! I may have taken a few artistic liberties with the abilities of the miraculouses, but I hope you still enjoy it! 
> 
> This fic is named after my favorite song, Crash by BAP. I think it fits the tone very well.

Marinette was late.

Not that it was an unusual phenomenon by any means, but it didn't make her any less urgent. The akuma had kept her busy for most of first period, and she had virtually no hope of slipping in unnoticed. 

"I'm sorry, Tikki. I'll try to get you a snack between classes," she apologized to her Kwami for the third time as she ran up the steps and into the college.

Her Kwami didn't seem to mind the trouble a bit. "Don't worry, Marinette. I'll be alright for a while."

Marinette opened her mouth to respond, but didn't get the chance. She hadn't been watching where she was going and suddenly slammed into something firm and warm. It caused her to fall flat on her butt. Her schoolbag spilled open across the floor and Marinette tried to regain her bearings. When she looked up, she realized it wasn't just anything she had run into, but someone. 

And that someone just so happened to be Adrien Agreste.  

Adrien was in front of Marinette, rubbing his chest--presumably the spot Marinette had just barreled into--with his own bag spilled out in the space between them as well. 

Marinette rushed to apologize, tripping over her words a few times as she attempted to gather both her's and Adrien's textbooks and tablets.

"Don't worry, Marinette," he reassured her as he passed her her small cross body bag, "it was an accident. I wasn't watching where I was going either."

Marinette's face flared up as she made eye contact. "W-We should get to class."

Adrien nodded and helped Marinette to her feet before the pair rushed off towards their classroom once again.

 

* * *

 

 

Marinette didn't have another opportunity to check on her kwami until the end of the day. She didn't even have time to stop during lunch thanks to Alya dragging her off to work on homework. 

When she finally got home, she tossed her book bag on her chaise lounge and sat down at her computer desk with a plate of cookies.

"Okay, Tikki," she said, unlatching her purse, "I finally got you a snack. So sorry it took me so long, but I managed to snag some extra cookies with double chocolate."

But it wasn't Tikki's voice that responded to her. "As much as I appreciate the sentiment, I'm much more of a cheese type."

Marinette's eyes shot down and latched onto a small, black creature with huge green eyes sitting on the edge of the plate of cookies. 

"Any chance you have any camembert around here?" 

Marinette threw both hands over her mouth before she could scream and pushed herself away from her desk. As much as she tried to deny what she was seeing, she knew too much about what she was looking at.

And she couldn't believe this was happening.

 

* * *

 

 

Adrien had to endure a photo shoot after school before he was finally able to return home and relax for a bit before patrol with Ladybug. When he finally got home he immediately collapsed in his bed.

"Plagg, I don't have any energy left in my body. Can you please find your own cheese today?"

No response came, which was unusual. Normally, his gluttonous Kwami would respond immediately with some kind of complaining or nagging, but the pest had been unusually quiet all afternoon. 

This, of course, caused a small panic in Adrien.  Plagg was never this quiet, which could only mean something was wrong.

Adrien sat up and grabbed his book bag. 

"Plagg, what's the matter," he asked, worried. "Are you--"

His eyes widened and his breath caught. There was no way…

But there was. And it was. As Adrien peered into his bag, he looked into a pair of huge, frightened blue eyes bulging out of a large red and black spotted head.

He was looking at Ladybug's Kwami.

 

* * *

 

 

"How did Cat Noir's Kwami end up in my purse?!" 

Marinette was pacing. She had too much pent up anxiety and couldn't deal with this recent revelation.

Cat's Kwami--Plagg, she believed he said, was still sitting on her desk. The plate of cookies had been replaced with a cheese Danish that, although wasn't camembert, he seemed to be enjoying. "Don't overthink these things, Bug. You'll go around in circles and end up hurting yourself. Besides, I'm pretty sure you know the answer to your question already." Plagg shoved a huge piece of pastry into his mouth, and Marinette continued to pace.

The kwami was right. She did know. There had only been once instance that day which could have led to this situation. Marinette was having a difficult time conceptualizing the event, and what it meant, so instead, she found herself firmly rooted in denial. 

But as much as she rejected the idea of Cat Noir being Ad--that person (She wasn't ready to form that thought completely quite yet), it was beginning to make sense. Besides, she needed to find Tikki. Even if Cat Noir's Kwami was safe with her, she couldn't just hand him over without revealing herself. And how could she be Ladybug without her own kwami?

"This is just too much," Marinette muttered. "I have to take you back. How am I supposed to give you back, though? This just has so many problems. And Tikki! I hope Tikki is ok! What if she got lost? Should I go back and look for her?"

"Tikki is fine. She's with my chosen."

"Tikki…is with…Cat Noir?" Marinette felt her knees give out. That meant the cat was officially out of the bag. She groaned at her own unintentional pun. "How am I supposed to deal with this?" 

Suddenly she remembered every close situation an akuma has forced her into with Cat Noir. Rolling on the ground together, losing him during the Timebreaker incident, kissing him when Dark Cupid had made him hate her. Marinette's face went as red as her Ladybug suit as that last image refused to leave her mind. Now she would have to face Cat Noir without the masks, and she was Unprepared™.

 

* * *

 

 

Adrien leaned back in his desk chair and contemplated the situation he found himself in. Sure he'd always wanted to know Ladybug's identity, but now that the reveal had been forced upon them, he didn't know how to feel. 

He was thrilled to know that Ladybug--his beloved Ladybug--was the amazing, strong, popular Marinette Dupain-Cheng. There was no denying that it was her at this point. And now that he knew for sure it was her, he was picking up on all of the similarities between Marinette and Ladybug that he simply hadn't noticed. He was so glad it was her.

He was far less excited about the fact that it had been involuntary. After all, Ladybug had never meant for them to reveal their identities. It was for their own safety, and he understood that. He still couldn't help but hope that the day would come that she would change her mind, but he had always wanted the eventual reveal to be on their own terms. 

Neither one of them had chosen this. He had no doubt that she had probably put the pieces together by now, and figured him out as well. 

He wondered what she thought? They had never been super close friends, but they often hung out in groups together. He hoped she wasn't disappointed that he was her partner as well. But come to think of it, he didn't know Marinette well enough to guess her reaction, and Ladybug had never interacted with his civilian self very often. 

He sighed and slumped forward, his forehead thudding dully on his desk.  
"I'm sure she won't be disappointed, Adrien," the little red Kwami comforted him.  

He lifted his head to glance at Tikki. "How do you know for sure?"

"I know Marinette very well," she fluttered up and made a small loop around his computer screens, featuring a Ladybug background, "and once she gets over her shock, she will probably be happy it's you."

"She didn't even want to reveal our identities, though."

"Only because she wanted to protect both of you," Tikki took another bite of the macaron's Adrien's chef brought up. They were nearly as good as the ones from Tom and Sabine's. "She wanted to know sometimes, too. But keeping your identities safe was more important."

Adrien felt a smile cross his face and a warm feeling in his chest. It was satisfying to know that she was just as curious as he was. 

"How are we going to do this, though? Do we just show up at school tomorrow and say 'hey, I found your kwami. Did you do your history homework?'"

"You and Ladybug normally patrol together in a couple of hours, right?"

He gave her an incredulous look. "How do you expect us to patrol without transforming?"

The kwami simply closed her eyes and smiled at him. 

 

* * *

 

 

Marinette couldn't believe this was actually happening, and she was never farther from understanding how kwamis and miraculouses actually worked. She stared at herself in her mirror after somehow managing to transform with Cat Noir's kwami. 

Her suit didn't feel any different. She didn't have any of the cool zippers or pockets of Cat Noir's suit, but her normally brightly colored suit had come out all black. She bent down and flicked a pair of cat ears settled on her head, then tested the weight of the rod in her hands. She was beginning to feel more like Cat Noir than Ladybug. Even her earrings featured Cat Noir's paw pads. 

"This is definitely weird," She murmured. 

They were set to meet for patrol in a half an hour, and it normally only took a couple of minutes to get to the Eiffel Tower when transformed. However, that was assuming she had her yoyo. She had no idea how to use this staff. Cat Noir made it look easy, but Marinette knew better. How was she supposed to vault herself to the top of the Eiffel Tower with this thing?

It was a disaster waiting to happen. 

Marinette sighed in defeat. She might not be ready to face Cat Noir, or the man under the mask, but she didn't have much of a choice. It was time to actually deal with this new development.

And to deal with it, she was going to have to figure out how to climb the tower without her bandalore.

 

* * *

 

 

Adrien was still laughing at himself, even as he sat on the peak of the Eiffel Tower. He couldn't believe it worked. Somehow he had transformed with Ladybug's kwami. He was apparently now Ladybug. His suit resembled his Cat Noir suit a bit, if a little more plain. If one could call red and black spots plain. And he had antennae where his cat ears normally were. He wasn't sure what their function was, but they were interesting, and something not even Marinette had while transformed. He even had a better understanding of Ladybug's true power and strength after trying to figure out how her yoyo worked. It was not a simple thing to be suddenly catapulted through the air by magical yoyo strings.  
He had been a little over excited and left his house much too early for patrol. Now all he had left to do was sit and wait for Marinette to show up. 

Oh God, would she show up?

That thought had barely formed in his mind when he heard soft footsteps land behind him. He smiled. He was still nervous, but she had come. It was a start. It was..a great start.

 

* * *

 

 

Marinette couldn't believe what she was looking at. Cat Noir was wearing Ladybug spots. If she weren't already processing so much, she would have found it hilarious. 

Instead of laughing, like she normally would, she simply stared. She couldn't bring herself to move. She couldn't even take a step forward. She simply watched as he stood. 

She held her breath as he turned to face her.

That's when the flood gates broke. 

Laughter tumbled out of Marinette. Her partner was covered in spots from head to toe, including his mask. But that wasn't the funniest part.  

"You--have--antennae!"

Marinette doubled over and held her stomach as she guffawed in his face. Maybe it wasn't the most graceful way to greet her partner. In hindsight it wasn't even that funny. She had to chalk it up to the build up of stress from the hectic day she'd had.

Before she knew it, he was laughing with her, no doubt feeling the same cathartic release of laughter that she was. 

Eventually the two of them came down from the strange high they were feeling. They made eye contact with one another for the first time, and Marinette smiled.  
Finally, she couldn't deny it. This was her partner. It was her long time crush. It was her friend. Cat Noir was Adrien Agreste.

Finally faced with this reality, she actually found herself happy about it. She was glad it was him.

"So, Chat Noire, I suppose we have some things to discuss," he said, gesturing for her to sit by him at the edge of the tower as they often did together. 

"I guess we do," she murmured. She took a deep breath. "Plagg, De-transform me."

Behind the mask, Adrien smiled at her. He was in awe at the ease with which she revealed herself to him, so he released his transformation as well.  

Suddenly, they had become just a couple of college students standing on the Eiffel tower, bearing all to one another, and feeling a bit naked without their transformations, even if they had been with the wrong kwami.

 

* * *

 

 

They sat down at the edge of the tower, their kwami beside them, and they were quiet for a moment. 

They simply watched the sun set over their city and let the new information sink in. They knew each other, in and out of the mask. Now that they had been revealed, it felt like their friendship had reached new levels that neither had imagined before. 

Their respective crushed had as well. Once Adrien had put together that Marinette was the amazing, beautiful, brave Ladybug, he allowed himself to fully admire both sides of her. She was talented in so many ways, and kind. He couldn't imagine Ladybug being anyone else.

Once Marinette got over her initial shock of Adrien being Cat Noir, she was able to appreciate her partner in ways she never had before. She realized she had never allowed herself to consider Adrien as her Cat because she cared for both boys in what she thought were very different ways. Adrien had her heart, but Cat Noir was her best friend. Cat Noir could practically read her every thought, but Adrien left her breathless. Putting the two of them together…wasn't a bad mix. She found herself liking both sides of him even more.

 

* * *

 

 

Once they had processed everything, and once one of them finally opened their mouth to speak, they couldn't stop talking. They talked about everything, from how relieved they were for everything to be out there, to how they hated lying to their friends and families.

"…and I was just behind the bushes when I transformed. I guess I'm lucky no one saw me," Adrien recalled.

"I can't believe you were right there! I was on the other side of the street!" Marinette couldn't hold back her laughter.

Adrien joined in on her laughter, "Ah, Bug, we've just been dancing around one another this whole time, haven't we?"

Marinette blushed, "I guess so. I just wish I had noticed sooner. I mean, you sit right in front of me! Alya would be so mad at me for this. She would definitely tell me that I was being blinded by my crush on yooOOU!" Marinette realized what she said only a moment too late, and threw her hands over her mouth. 

She dared a glance at Adrien, hoping he hadn't heard her off hand confession.  
He stared at her, eyes wide, mouth slightly open, and cheeks a bit flushed. 

Yep. 

He'd definitely heard her.

She winced. "Is there any chance you can just..forget I said that?" Her face was definitely red. She had no doubt about it. 

He just continued to stare at her. Marinette's heart raced in her chest. She couldn't take the embarrassment, and made to stand and leave, "Maybe I should just…"

Adrien's hand shot out and grasped her wrist. Her eyes met his, and he was noticeably more red than before, his other hand over his mouth. He released her wrist and rubbed the back of his neck, averting his eyes. "Don't--go. Please, I--" he took a breath. "I just need a second." 

Marinette sat back down next to him, pulling her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms around her legs. She was going to die of embarrassment.  

"I…I've liked you for a long time, Marinette," Adrien finally confessed. 

Marinette's head snapped up.

"Since we first met, I've thought you were amazing. First as Ladybug, but as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, too. And maybe my feelings are more than just liking you. No, I'm sure that they are. But I didn't want to pressure you if that made you uncomfortable. And you never took my flirting seriously, so I just accepted things as they were. But…can I take what you just said to mean you feel the same way?"

Marinette's eyes were shining. It wasn't how she imagined confessing to Adrien, but she had to admit that the setting was romantic. She nodded, not trusting herself to open her mouth. 

The smile Adrien gave her was blinding. It showed pure elation in a way no photo or magazine spread would ever be able to capture. He reached for her and embraced Marinette in a crushing hug. She could feel every ounce of his feeling in the embrace, and returned it with equal fervor. 

They had found each other. It was by accident, caused by Marinette's own clumsiness, but she couldn’t find an ounce of regret for it, because it had led them to this embrace, bearing it all. Neither one of them could be happier about it.

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually one of my favorites so far, so I really hope you liked it!  
> Find me on Tumblr! CrypticCravings.tumblr.com  
> Follow me for more Adrinette Month Updates!


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